Polish superstar Tomasz Gollob rattled off an astonishing 24-point maximum to win the FIM Dansk Metal Nordic SGP at Vojens on Saturday, but will not celebrate until he realises his World Championship dream.
The 39-year-old produced his second seven-ride maximum of the season to claim a 19-point lead at the top of the standings over reigning No.1 Jason Crump, who finished third. Despite heavy rain testing riders and their pit crews to the limit throughout the night, Gollob was a model of consistency on the track where he lifted the FIM Speedway World Cup with Poland on August 1.
If he increases his lead at the SGP summit to 25 points at the FIM Nice Italian SGP at Terenzano on September 25, Gollob will definitely be crowned world champion in his home town Bydgoszcz on October 9. But having lost the title in 1999 when he went into the final round with a four-point advantage over Swedish legend Tony Rickardsson, Gollob was taking nothing for granted.
He said: "I may have scored maximum points, but that doesn't mean I am world champion now. It's a long journey. But hopefully Terenzano and Bydgoszcz will be good for me and I will be world champion.
"I'm in a good position now, but I'm not happy yet because I haven't won it. There are more meetings in the championship." Gollob is already being hotly tipped to shine at Terenzano, where he dropped just one point on his way to victory last season. But the Gorzow and Vastervik man knows producing a repeat performance will be tough.
He said: "Everybody will be good at Terenzano - it's not about me and Crumpie. There are 16 guys who can do well."
It was a great night for the Danes as Kenneth Bjerre put a rough recent run in the Grand Prix series behind him to finish second, while three-time SGP champion Nicki Pedersen was fourth. Bjerre's 17 points takes him up to fourth in the World Championship and 10 clear of Rune Holta in fifth. The Polish international suffered a nightmare in Denmark after tumbling on turn three and twisting his knee in heat four.
Holta was limping heavily throughout the rest of the night, but battled on bravely to score six points and win his final ride against Crump, Greg Hancock and Magnus Zetterstrom. Swedish international Freddie Lindgren was also in the wars and suffered a heavy fall when he locked up while pressuring Nicki Pedersen for second place in heat three.
The 24-year-old landed hard on his back and was also sporting a huge bump on the side of his head after the meeting. He is unlikely to appear in Zielona Gora's Polish Ekstraliga play-off semi-final, second leg on Sunday evening. Meanwhile, it was a tough night for British stars Chris Harris and Tai Woffinden. Cornish racer Harris struggled from the starts and scored four points, while Woffinden accrued just two.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (after nine rounds):
1 Tomasz Gollob 141, 2 Jason Crump 122, 3 Jaroslaw Hampel 121, 4 Kenneth Bjerre 98, 5 Rune Holta 88, 6 Chris Holder 83, 7 Greg Hancock 81, 8 Chris Harris 76, 9 Hans Andersen 71, 10 Andreas Jonsson 70, 11 Fredrik Lindgren 70, 12 Nicki Pedersen 67, 13 Magnus Zetterstrom 60, 14 Tai Woffinden 39, 15 Emil Sayfutdinov 33, 16 Davey Watt 13, 17 Janusz Kolodziej 12, 18 Thomas H Jonasson 8, 19 Adrian Miedzinski 6, 20 Antonio Lindback 6, 21 Niels Kristian Iversen 6, 22 Piotr Protasiewicz 5, 23 Jurica Pavlic 5, 24 Scott Nicholls 4, 25 Matej Kus 3, 26 Leon Madsen 3, 27 Ludvig Lindgren 2, 28 Nicolai Klindt 1, 29 Linus Sundstrom 1.
FIM DANSK METAL NORDIC SGP POINTS:
1 Tomasz Gollob 24, 2 Kenneth Bjerre 17, 3 Jason Crump 15, 4 Nicki Pedersen 12, 5 Jaroslaw Hampel 11, 6 Chris Holder 10, 7 Andreas Jonsson 9, 8 Magnus Zetterstrom 8, 9 Hans Andersen 7, 10 Niels Kristian Iversen 6, 11 Rune Holta 6, 12 Greg Hancock 6, 13 Fredrik Lindgren 5, 14 Chris Harris 4, 15 Tai Woffinden 2, 16 Davey Watt 1, 17 Nicolai Klindt 0, 18 Patrick Hougaard 0.
